vested immediately in the son and three fourths in the charity. Hamlin v. Mansfield, 33 Atl. Rep. 788 (Me.).

It would seem that an equitable fee vested immediately in the charity in this case, subject to the provisions in regard to the partnership. If so, the rule against perpetuities could have no application, except under the erroneous doctrine of Stade v. Patten, 68 Me. 380, by which perhaps the court felt bound. The provisions for the firm, while not enforceable against the equitable owner, might well have been permitted at the discretion of the trustee. The only remote gift is the one fourth to the son or his heirs, since it may not vest for two lives. This gift the court gives effect to, so that the case seems wrong on all points.

PROPERTY-TENANT FOR LIFE AND REMAINDERMAN - PAYMENT OF CHARGE ON INHERITANCE.-H. devised two houses, subject to a mortgage, to his wife C. for life, remainder to his children equally. C. expended a part of the rents in discharging the mortgage, and died. Her executor claims the amount so spent from the trustees of H.'s will, the houses having been sold under its provisions. Held, the fact that the relation of parent and child subsisted between C. and the remaindermen does not rebut the presumption that she intended to keep the charge alive for her own benefit. In re Harvey, [1896] 1 Ch. 137.

The rule followed has grown up despite the fact that a large proportion of future estates created are, as matter of common knowledge, similar to the above, and the decision would seem correct. The rule may be traced through Jones v. Morgan, I Bro. C. C. 206, 218; St. Paul v. Lord Dudley, 15 Ves. 167; Burrell v. Lord Egremont, 7 Beav. 205; and (dictum) Morley v. Morley, 5 D. M. & G. 610, 626. Certain expressions in the latter case may justify the defendants' contention. The present decision fails to state whether there was an assignment of the claim, losing sight of a distinction touched upon in the earlier cases. The passage quoted by A. L. Smith, L. J., would seem to indicate that there was not. As to estates tail, see Jones v. Morgan (supra), St. Paul v. Lord Dudley (supra), and 1 Story, Eq. Jur., 12th ed. c. 8, § 486.

PROPERTY WATER SPRING OWNERSHIP.- Defendant came on plaintiff's land and carried away water from plaintiff's spring. Held, plaintiff had such property rights in the water as to entitle him to recover damages. Metcalf v. Nelson, 65 Ñ. W. Rep. 911 (S. D.).

The point came up squarely, as the plaintiff sued for damages for the value of the water rather than to pursue his certain remedy of trespass. The few English authorities reach a contrary conclusion. They go on the ground that property in spring water is analogous to property in air and wild animals, and that title can be acquired only by occupancy; the owner of the reality having merely a usufructuary interest. The last English decision is that of Race v. Ward, 4 E. & B. 703 (1855). See also 2 Blackstone. 14, 18; Year Book, Trin. 15 Ed. IV. 29, case 7; Manning v. Wasdale, 5 A. & E. 758, The principal case seems to be the only one where the question has arisen in the United States. The conclusion is a desirable one, and the case would doubtless be followed. Perhaps it can be reconciled with the English decisions, as it assumes that the spring was formed by percolating waters, while the English cases assume that a spring is the outlet of an underground channel. Both the English and American courts recognize a distinction between rights in percolating waters and those flowing in an underground channel. The authorities are collected in 64 Am. Dec. 727–730.

TORTS ASSAULT — RIGHT OF ACTION IN PARTY CONSENTING TO AN ABORTION. - Defendant induced plaintiff to submit to an attempted abortion by a physician procured by plaintiff. Plaintiff's health was thereby seriously injured, and she sued defendant for damages. Held, her consent to the act deprived her of a right to recover civil damages therefor. Goldnamer v. O'Brien, 33 S. W. Rep. 831 (Ky.).

It is doubtful whether in our law there are any general principles applicable to the right of a party to recover damages for the results of a criminal act to which he has consented. Consent to the destruction of property, under circumstances making the destruction criminal, would doubtless prevent a civil recovery by the owner. Consent to seduction is a bar to a civil suit by the party seduced. On the other hand, consent to the battery involved in a fist-fight is, by the great weight of authority, no defence to a civil action by either of the parties against the other. It is said the latter is a breach of the peace, something so abhorrent to the law that consent to it is void on public grounds. This is an excellent reason for severe criminal punishment, doubtless, but it is perhaps not quite clear how the public weal is benefited by allowing a willing party to a criminal act to recover for the consequences of his own law-breaking. If it be sound law, however, to allow a principal in a prize-fight to salve his injuries at his adversary's expense, public policy would seem to demand even more strongly the same privilege for the victim of a criminal operation. The Kentucky court recognizes the

similarity of the two cases, and criticises the decisions allowing mutual actions to prize-fighters.

TORTS MALICIOUS PROSECUTION OF A CIVIL ACTION. Held, an action will lie for malicious prosecution of a civil suit without arrest of the person or attachment of property. Lipscomb v. Shofner, 33 S. W. Rep. 818 (Tenn.). See NOTES.

VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS RESIGNATION. - The defendants were the governing committee of an association formed to provide for the legal assistance of the members when necessary, and the plaintiff sought an injunction to prevent them from depriving him of membership. The plaintiff had offered his resignation, but had withdrawn it before any action was taken. No club rule on resignation existed. Held, (by Court of Appeal), assuming there was jurisdiction, the notification by the plaintiff when received by the committee was an election to resign, from which he could not retreat. Finch v. Óake, 12 The Times Law Reports, 156.

The English courts do not recognize voluntary associations as such. Hector v. Flemyng, 2 M. & W. 172. But they recognize that a relationship of some kind exists among the members by uniformly entertaining suits to prevent expulsions contrary to the club rules or the laws of the land. Labouchere v. Earl of Wharncliffe, 13 Ch. D. 346; Baird v. Wells, 44 Ch. D. 661, 670; and compare Rigby v. Connol, 14 Ch. D. 482. No authority on the precise point has been found, and the court mentions none. The decision, however, is probably correct, making the relation of a member to the organization like that of a party to a contract terminable on notice, or perhaps that of a continuing guarantor. Offord v. Davies, 12 C. B. N. s. 748. If a provision is made by the rules that a resignation must be accepted to be complete, that of course settles the matter, and possibly, in an organization distinctly social, that provision might be considered to be impliedly assented to by the members.

REVIEWS.

THE WORKS OF JAMES WILSON. Edited by James DeWitt Andrews. Chicago Callaghan & Co. 1896. 2 vols. pp. xlvi, v, 577, 623. The present edition in two large volumes, in clear type, with copious notes and index, is in striking contrast to the three modest little octavo volumes, containing merely the unembellished text of Mr. Justice Wilson's writings, which formed the original edition of 1804. The lectures which are collected in these volumes are those which the author prepared, and in great part delivered, at the University of Pennsylvania in the years. 1790-91 and 1791-92. He had contemplated a three years' course; but his third series of lectures was never even prepared, so that his published work fails to cover the whole framework of the law. In addition to the lectures, there are included in this edition, as in the former one, his speech in defence of the Constitution before the Pennsylvania Convention (1787), his masterly argument on the power of Congress under the Articles of Confederation to incorporate the Bank of North America, together with one or two other speeches, and fragments of essays. Several speeches published in the original edition are justly deemed of insufficient importance to justify reprinting.

The value of his work is chiefly historical. The fact that his scheme of lectures was never completed, and the additional fact that his arrangement and treatment is colored by his training in the civil law, militate of course against its use as a text-book. Its historical value lies chiefly in the author's attitude on certain constitutional questions. He anticipated by many years the conclusions reached by the United States Supreme Court as to the nature of a grant of land and of a corporate charter, and, what is most to his credit, he had already taken the position, more than

three quarters of a century before the Legal Tender Cases were decided, that the United States, even under the Articles of Confederation, were invested with powers which were inherent in sovereign nations, and impossible of exercise by any individual State, although not granted by the Articles. As authority for these propositions, the book is superseded by United States Supreme Court decisions; but as an exemplification of the views held by the framers of our Constitution as to its proper interpretation, and so as a basis for the later decisions, it must remain valuable.

Little fault is to be found with the substance of Mr. Andrews's work as editor. He spares us unnecessary notes, and his notes where inserted are helpful, and properly appreciative of the scope and importance of the author's propositions. The main body of the text bears testimony to careful proof-reading; but not infrequently typographical errors mar tne foot-notes; and exception may be taken to such vague references as "See Pollock Maitland's [sic] History of the English Laws" (vol. i. p. 440); and "See Appendix” (vol. i. p. 545), where the appendix meant is that at the end of the second volume.

E. R. C.

THE LAND LAWS. By Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart. Third Edition. MacMillan & Co., London and New York. 1896. pp. x, 233.

To those who have read the book in the past this new edition will surely be welcome. For those who have yet to make its acquaintance, there is a fresh delight in store. Sir Frederick Pollock has a faculty for investing the driest of matters with interest. Take for example his amusing yet accurate account of "suffering a recovery," where Brian and Littleton are in colorable litigation, and Catesby, the so-called "vouchee,” accommodatingly ends the affair by surreptitiously "departing in contempt of court." A student could not desire a more agreeable introduction to the technical treatises on the law of real property; nor need the lay reader fear longer to find the subject of land laws "caviare to the general."

The important changes from former editions include a thorough revision of the chapter on "Early Customary Law," and the addition of a note dealing with the "Origins of the Manor" in the light of recent research. In this note, Sir Frederick commits himself to neither the "villa" nor the Germanic theory. The alterations in the account of early customary law were made necessary by a frank change of attitude as to the nature of "folk-land." It is no longer described as ager publicus, land held by the nation for public purposes, (see 1st ed., p. 20,) but rather as "land held by folk-right or customary law," in contrast to "book-land,” which was "held in several property under the express terms of a written instrument." Strangely enough, this view is a return to one advanced two hundred years ago, and owes its present acceptance to the researches of a Russian, Mr. Vinogradoff.

Very naturally, there are many additions to the chapter on "Modern Reforms and Prospects." Several recent statutes are described, noticeably the copyhold act of 1894. The Torrens Land Transfer System is dealt with very briefly and in a non-committal way, though it is quite evident that in so far as the system does away with the possibility of “adverse possession" of registered land, and the operation of the statute of limitations, it is displeasing to the author. The abolition of primogeniture, and a radical simplification of the law governing the settlement of estates, are said to be prospects the realization of which is not far off. In

an allusion to the radical reforms effected in the land laws in the last sixty years, Sir Frederick says, with characteristic humor and terseness: "Lord St. Leonards would have been in their eyes" (i. e. the Real Property Commissioners of 1829) "a rash innovator, Lord Cairns a revolutionist, and for Lord Halsbury parliamentary language would have failed them." The closing paragraph refers with much quiet satisfaction to the defeat of the socialistic candidates in the last Parliamentary elections.

E. R. C.

OUTLINES OF LEGAL HISTORY. By Archer M. White, Barrister-at-Law. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Lim. New York: MacMillan & Co. 1895. pp. xvi, 251.

Of the three works on English Legal History that have appeared within a half-year, this little volume by Mr. White undoubtedly covers the most ground, but is nevertheless primarily intended for the smallest class of readers. Mr. Inderwick in "The King's Peace" has given a sketch of the higher English courts. He traces their development in connection with the growth and changes in the customs and dealings of the people. "The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I., by Pollock and Maitland, covers the whole field of early English law in an unusually exhaustive and scholarly manner. This volume of Mr. White's covers the ground of both the other works, though necessarily in the briefest manner possible, and then continues in new fields. Beginning with a brief description of the important features of the English judicial system of to-day, it proceeds to a history of the origin and evolution of the major courts, devotes a short chapter to the minor and obsolete courts, and considers the Saxon system, "the cradle of the English law," and the changes and distinctions between it and the Norman system. The last and longest chapter is a chronological summary of leading principles and topics of the law, including sections on constitutional matters, equity, and criminal law. Each topic is treated tersely by itself, and traced from its origin through its important changes. The bare mention that all this information is compressed into less than 250 small pages will indicate that the book can be neither easy reading nor an exhaustive history. It is intended to aid English law students in preparing quickly for their Bar Trial Examination in Legal History. In fulfilling this end, it becomes so condensed and methodical as to be rather a syllabus or compendium than a literary work. The fact that it is a text-book cannot be forgotten. Therefore, it will not attract the casual lay reader. The young student, however, will be delighted with it, as a better summary of the subject than he could possibly prepare. And as there is no other work which covers even superficially the whole extent of this little volume, it will appeal to many an older student of law and legal history as a handy reference manual.

H. C. L.

A MANUAL OF ELEMENTARY LAW. By William P. Fishback, Dean of the Indiana Law School. Indianapolis and Kansas City: The BowenMerrill Company. 1896. pp. xxvii, 467.

Owing to the considerable number of works of this nature already before the public, it may be doubted whether there is room for another. But, disregarding this question, the small volume by Mr. Fishback has in its field undoubted merit. It briefly but interestingly summarizes the well

settled principles of American law. No proposition is laid down which is not supported by adequate authority. Consequently only the broad principles which underlie the various branches of the law are explained. The work has no place in the library of an advanced student. Its usefulness is limited to those who are little more than beginners, and to the great class of laymen who find it advantageous to have a limited knowledge of law. The author claims no more. He pretends to no originality, except that he uses simple language, which will appeal to beginners and inspire them to the more technical study that is required of the practitioner. In this avowedly limited character the volume should meet with success.

H. C. L.

SUMMARY AND INDEX OF LEGISLATION BY STATES IN 1895. New York State Library Bulletin: Legislation No. 6. Albany. 1896. pp. 310. The Sixth Annual Bulletin of Legislation (1895) contains over 4,500 titles in the summary, a complete subject index, and a table of recent constitutional amendments-proposed, accepted, and rejected. The last feature is introduced this year for the first time. It is a most useful compilation of statutory changes and innovations, whether one be engaged in studying comparative legislation, or in merely keeping track of alterations in the statutes of particular States. Often a glance at the summary will obviate entirely the necessity of consulting the State statutebook for the provisions of a statute. The increasing estimation in which these annual bulletins of legislation are held is well earned.